No matter what flaws you
find in Snow White and the Huntsman, and there are at least a few in the movie,
you have to admit – the film looks amazing. First time director Rupert Sanders
has crafted one of the visually stunning films of the year. The cinematography,
art direction and costume design, married with terrific visual effects means
that even when the story lulls – and it does lull – you always have something
interesting to look at.

Unlike Mirror, Mirror from
earlier this year, which was also a new take on the Snow White story, Snow
White and Huntsman does not go for the jokey, Shrek-like tone, but goes much,
much darker. The Snow White story has always been about sex, death and female
vanity – even singing dwarves couldn’t mask it completely in the Disney version
from 1937. It is a fairy tale, but like most fairy tales there are dark
undertones to the story, which this version brings to the forefront. The movie
opens with the setup we know all too well – the brave, beautiful Queen giving birth
to the popular, beautiful Princess Snow White – and when the Queen dies, the
grief stricken King gets taken in by another beautiful woman – who he quickly
marries, and then dies, leaving the evil woman in charge. Snow White is locked
away in a tower – until she escapes in the Dark Forest. The Queen sends a huntsman
out into the forest to kill Snow White, and bring back her organs – in this version
because she needs to eat the heart of the young and beautiful to maintain her
own beauty. But the huntsman cannot bring himself to kill her.

Snow White and the Huntsman
is proof that there are many ways to tell the same story. Writers Evan
Daugherty, John Lee Hancock and Hossein Amini bring the darkness that was
always in the story to the forefront – not afraid of being scary, creepy or
violent, and Sanders goes right along with them. Yes, this is still Snow White,
but it’s not really a kid’s movie – the film is dripping with sexuality and violence.
The film uses a lot of CGI throughout, but it never takes over the movie as a
whole – they are used in conjunction with the story. There are a lot of visuals
you could praise – but the best one may be the magic mirror, where it’s not a
reflection, but a liquid, mirror man who slithers out of the mirror to talk to
the evil Queen, which is one of the creepiest things I have seen in recent
memory. Sanders does need to work on pacing however – the movie bogs down quite
a bit in the second act as the Huntsman and Snow White wander through the forest
(the dwarves show up surprisingly late in the film). The ending of the film isn’t
quite as exciting as you would like either – but they may just be because the
movie, of course, does have to follow a set formula.

As for the performances,
for the most part they work. Charlize Theron delivers yet another brilliant

performance as the
snarling, evil, cruel, egomaniacal yet insecure Queen. You need a truly evil
Queen to make the movie work, and Theron delivers. I also really liked all of
the dwarves – most of whom are fairly famous actors – Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins,
Nick Frost, Toby Jones, Ray Winstone, Eddie Marsan, who of course are not that
little, but the special effects used to make them appear so are flawless. They aren’t
given a lot to do, but they do their job well. Which brings us to the title
characters – Chris Hemsworth, best known as Thor, plays the Huntsman, and he’s
the sort of square jawed hero you expect in a movie like this. Yes, the movie
tries to give him some depth – grieving widower, drunk – but he’s still in
action hero mode for most of the film – and he does that well. As for Kirsten
Stewart the Twilight saga remains the best and worst thing that has ever
happened to her. It has made her into a major movie star, but has also forced
this actress, who before Twilight I thought of as a talented up and comer, and
forced her into a ridiculous franchise, with a passive, irrational character.
Yet, she is still the best part about that awful franchise – but it does work against
her, somewhat, here. Her Snow White seems a little too passive for much of the
movie – so when she has to become a “leader” in the end, it doesn’t quite work.
She’s good in the film, but perhaps an actress without the baggage she has
would have been a better choice. I do look forward to seeing her after Twilight
ends – to see what the next act of her career has in store for her.

So yes, Snow White and the Huntsman has some
flaws in it. And yet, I was never bored by the film – and I always engaged. The
problem in telling a story as well-known as Snow White is that there really is
no way to surprise an audience – all you can do is try and find a different way
of telling it. And Snow White and the Huntsman does just that.

About Me

I am an accountant, living in Brantford, ON - and although I am married and have beautiful daughter, I still find time to watch a lot of movies. This blog is mostly reviews of new movies - with other musing thrown in as well.